10 Secret Reasons Why The Avengers Is the Best Superhero Film

8. Hawkeye Blends Two Archetypes, The Masculine Hawk-Headed Horus, and the Feminine Archer-Huntress Goddess. It's Not a Coincidence that He's the Film's Most Androgynous Hero - Nor That He Is Among the First Enslaved By Loki.

In virtually every way Hawkeye is the weakest member of the team. Whereas the other characters move freely throughout the Marvel universe and have identities of their own, Hawkeye appeared as a villain in only three issues before becoming a hero and joining the original Avengers line-up. As far as powers go he's nothing special - a master archer, hardly an alluring power no matter how many "trick arrows" the writers can imagine him having at the most convenient times.

The filmmakers don't make things any easier for building up Hawkeye. For much of the movie he's morally blind -- his eyes go black for a moment as Loki's wand poisons his heart and enslaves his mind and body.

Again with the eyes as a central symbol, from the San Graal library, a repository of online information on mythology and esotericism:

The word utchat, sometimes spelled udjat, refers to Egypt's sacred eye symbol. The right eye is called the Eye of Ra, symbolizing the sun. The left is called the Eye of Thoth, symbolizing the moon. Both eyes together are the Two Eyes Of Horus The Elder. The eye is the part of the body able to perceive light, and is therefore the symbol for spiritual ability.

So what are we to make of the eye so frequently obscured and distorted, particularly in our androgynous icons? It often accompanies distortions and mutilations of the body too..

To blind oneself to masculinity and femininity is to deny both our creative abilities and responsibilities.

‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot.16‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.17‘Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,18I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.

But what's there to see once you have new eyes and can recognize Mother Nature for the cruel "bloody bitch" she is?